By Alexandra Newman
I want to start this particular story of aging up in the sky, floating, high above the desert in Africa.
That’s where Joan P., 79, was bit.
“I was watching the lions looking around to see where this noise was coming from, but they wouldn’t look up. It was so beautiful up there. That’s where I was bitten by the balloon bug,” she said on a recent visit to her home in Paw Paw.
The year was 1987 and she returned to the United States determined to become a hot air balloon captain – a career, many women didn’t have at the time. Not long after, she gained her licenses to fly and even bought her very own balloon, not quite knowing how she’d pay for it.
When Joan first shared this story with me, I couldn’t quite believe it. But she had the photos to prove it. She and her late husband even met when he came to take a hot air balloon ride.
I felt so honored to meet someone with such a unique passion and career. I could have listened to her share stories of her ballooning adventures for hours, but I digress.
Joan has been an Area Agency on Aging (AAA) client for about six years now. She began receiving assistance when she had a health episode that left her unable to care for herself.
But when AAA stepped in, she was already receiving in-home hospice care, she just needed additional help hospice didn’t provide.
Joan was diagnosed with a rare lung disease years ago, which has caused her lungs to become weak and she’s unable to go without supplemental oxygen.
A long oxygen cord wraps around the legs of her dining chairs and is kicked out of the way when Joan walks around the house with her cane.
“But I’m still thriving,” she said.
A common misconception about hospice care, as well as assistance from Area Agency on Aging, is that it’s only for the very end of life. But as people like late President Jimmy Carter, and now my new friend Joan, have proved, is that you don’t have to be knocking on death’s door to receive the supports and services an organization like hospice and AAA provides.
AAA has worked very closely with Joan’s hospice provider over the years, bringing in more AAA services as her health improves, and bringing in more hospice services when her health declines.
Thanks to the two entities working together, Joan has been able to remain living, independently, in her home this entire time.
“They help me want to keep going. I still get to enjoy life,” she told me.
She’s still able to shower by herself, thanks to grab bars AAA was able to pay for and get installed in her bathroom. She also has a fall button, provided by AAA, so if she were to ever take a tumble, help would be there quickly.
Over the years she’s received help with her laundry, cooking and cleaning and other homemaker services.
Thanks to a niece and nephew that live nearby, and a close friend, she’s still able to get out of the house, too.
“We like to go shopping, to the market, or on little adventures, like to museums or just driving around town,” Joan said.
Her oxygen and cane just have to come with her.
Joan said she wants to stay in her own home for as long as she can.
“AAA and hospice have made it so I can still go on adventures,” she said.
They might not be as high-flying as a hot air balloon ride, but they are still so important to her health and happiness as she ages.
If you’re interested in learning more about how AAA can work with another care provider to layer in additional support for you or a loved one, or help you keep going on adventures, call the Info-Line for Aging & Disability at 800-654-2810.
The Generations Column appears each week in The Herald-Palladium.